while roadhard while our been long we have picked our way back and we know in ourica the best is yet to comma president of the uni the state of the economy to deal a solid electoral c to mitt romney. >> this is a and i prp< guidingnation. great to haveme.rts. and welcome to ourecial coverage of election night 2012. the story of the expected to be a battle for the battlegroundtates, ta fairly one-sidedth the president nearly now, after months ofy.down that sta tha state wirk put the president over the magic number of 270 electoral votes. now, another big victoryvirginia. that was a state the callalso just moments nevada was final lyly cal president obama.ida

is another state mitt state that is still too close to call. we're going to dig down on that one. colorado, thatstate going to president the states that alongoo with ohio made up what was called president obama's firewall also went his sconsin was one of the early calls of the night, which gave an indication ofiowa is the other part of that firewall. the state where president obama held his final campaign appearance yesterday. and that captured that. new hampshire another battleground sta in favorite president once again. now, the one swing state thatnt for mittna, which voted, you may recall, for the president back in '08. turned to the republicans this time around. so what kind of congress will the presidente one very similar to the one he has al two though will hold on to control of the senate and even republicans are projected to hold on to the maj will be returning thisthe white house after a late night for both him and for mitt ro now, nbc's chris jansing is livefor us at the romneyrsn boston, but begin with msnbc political analyst jonathan alter live atoéchicago. and jo a huge night for the president. monumental, as we heard in his sp but hho memory and reflection remember

this very long campaign? >> well you know this was a validation o stood for over really the last 75 the country was at a fork in the road, thomas. and if president obama had been defeated much of what he accolishedir;ç been repealed and the country would have moved sharply to the right. it's not going to go to the left election defended the center. so we'll get to work on some probing, proble center stg of the party setting the course. >> jonathan did the president's speech did it set what we can expect in terms ñ getting back to wo did it make the broad gestures nd what america wants to see when it comes to our elected leaders and people crossing the washington, d.c.? >> yeah i t speech did have a generosity of spirit as did mitt's. mitch mcconnell's sq5tatement was very dispeptic, beyond feisty almost to the point of being confrontational. but you "the godfather," thomas, this is

the business he has chosen. so president obama is going to have to deal w he will continue to haveú? a majority in the u.s. senate reid as theleader. but he's going to have top across the aisle. but election did is it gave himome new tools. not af that's too sweeping of an idea. but leverage in these budget talks and a strg came to immigration party now if it doesn't start to appeal latinos it is doomed as a party. so that you can expect some new cooperation from repubg which is a big deal. >> jonathan thanks so much. let's check in now with msnbc's chris jansing. she is with the romney grace chris. crowds then not stih longer after thatno. yo ballroom is pret empty except for camera crews, who are packing up the equipment. seven years after mittmneynded in this ballroom tonight with that short five-minute concession speech. you know it rea amazing difference 24 hours make. we know romney campaign that would be the next presidentthe united

states. and nvgin fact his road was so much more difficult they kept lookats enthusiasm in ose battlegroundsts youd, he won only one of them north ca and at the end of what was very clearly a very acrimonious called for unity. hear he wast night. >> the nation, as you know, is at a critical point. at a time like this we can't risk parg. $; our leaders have to reach across the aisle and do the people's work. and we citizens also have to rise to the occasion. and we looked at democratsrepublicans at all levels to put the people before i belie america. i believe in the people of america. it was a v almost shockingly brief. and his family came onto the stage only for just a moments. and although he left here very quickly. we saw some of them out in the but i think they'd have quite a bit of time, several hours really, to prepare themselves. it became pretty clearoo late into the way this was going to go. mitt romney and his family decided to go just a few blocks

from here. they're staying at tonight, where they had watched the home just about ebb ten miles away in belmont, massachusetts. one more thing, thomas. going to be the new president he would a new dog, a wiem raner, which is a hunting dog. at this point wehe plans to do romney's plans are from here. thomas? >> chris want to bring in nour the political power panel that we've assembled that will be with me for the next two correspondent for the nation artie melber salon editor at ributor and president latino maria teresa kumar, and former national f communications director for the rick santorum gr hogan gidley. as well as msnbc contributor and managing edito joy ann reid ands msnbc contributor and former aide to rick santorum robert traynham. guys, great to have you here. to start with you because you're all the way over there on my right. i'm g figuring out but your r evening. the polls gave an indication of what to expect going into tonight. a lot of people would have thought. >> it's defini electoral votes. it's a strong endorsement of barack obama during a period

when typically incumbent presidents struggle to build any kind of majority when you see thtrong unemployment numbers out there. to pick up on one thing that jonathan allerepublica long time to ney ia lot of people didn't expect. he did worse among latinos than john mccain, who got 36% among latinos. ght ack obama by 40 points. we also know latino up from 8% just two cycles ago to 10%. 1 out of every 10 voters and growing. and i think that's a product ofe rhetoric and some of the tough policies we heard from the republican party. and a big q how they can get back on the side of a growing voting denigrating people in the country. >> off of the polls and leading upthis. >> right. >> brut where do you think the romney campaign and their team lost any ot of traction out of it. they did. course? >> they're going to be blaming hurricane sandy for a lot of things. you're hearing thais christie. i think sandy but not in the way they think. not just because it shut him out thomas.

role because it was like one long obama commercial. we take care of our own. it really sounded thetogether government can do something,e need one another, and the president rose to the we saw in exit polls that it really mattered to people. i think it was 2/3 in the÷q "new york times" exit poll said sandy mattered and 70% ofhem went it was just the icing on the cake because it is a mandate for more government. th mandate for good , strong government, but more government. >> i think the p his team, they know how tight this was and what they did pull out of this. but the presidentude. take a listen to this. >> no matter what you do or where you go from here you will carry the memory of the history we made together. and you will have the appreciation of a grateful thank you for believing all the way. to every hill. through every valley. you lifted whole way.

an for everything that you've done and all the incrible work that you've put in. >> so maria teresa when we hear that and knowing again, we point we do know there is the mandate definitively from the electoral college of who the winner is tonight. but the president knows what got him there, is reachedç out to latinos, thate reached out that women, to the ity, that it was a rl efforts in very microsurgical communities to be able to get the enthusiasm i think it's time for america torealize welcome to the new majority. that new smajt amajority is latinos. we also talked about single women. single women came out inying this is something that is personal to me. i think what we're going to see is in order for the republican party to win any election they're going to have to h moment and say how are we going to diversify, not just among latinos but among this new majority and how we going to hit it home. aotherwise all they're going to be relegated to is winning seats but

not -- >> a come to jesus moment. >> you're sharpening your spanish. >> as we have seen tonight for a of the republicans certainly in different raise and we'll talk about them a little bit more, espe akins and the but does theand itself about what it means going forward, time to get out of uteruses get out of the business of you know gay andsbian, anti-p really matters to them smaller government, less taxes, get back on track with that? >> well i think so. i t need to do some soul searching stat that really stood out to me the most this evening, and we've touched on it somewhat-s that you know george h.w.5 bush got vote and got so400al votes. right?bout the ic electorate is so much more diverse than it usedd if republicans don't shape up and understand that's what we'v we've got to address the issues and the problems within the party, this is going to be a commonce for decades, notcycle. and you know santorum but i also worked for

mike. years. and he got of the black vote twice in statewide elections as o you do that? no one gets african-americans. how do you do that? and he said to me, and this is a southern thing, and if jimmy were sitting here he'd approve i'm sure. >> he's not too far >> but he hogan, no one has ever caught a fish sittin t talking they h and throw the bait in the wat didn't do ion years. he did it all the they trusted him. and he really in this campaign at all. i don't even think the romney campaign reached out much to the african-amer they just figured white vote gone. >> we have a call to make coming out of nevada. let's go ahead and tell you what we know arace that the race is going to go t heller. this is something -- dean heller was a former congressman from appointed to this seat after john ens advance of this harshly critical senate ethics report on his ean heller is going to the winner there berk joining us in a momentida, a state we still have not been able to call yet. back in a moo

amer this election. whether

witnessed tonight. history being madesident obama is re-elo a second term in this country. i want to bring back our entire panel. but i want to startjoy-ann who joins us now to talk more about what we're watching in florida. pretty amazing to think that florida is still too close to call basically, that we don't know what the numbers are going to r grand scheme of things. kind of unheard of when we talk about this inst.(o >> yeah thomas. it's interesting. this is going to b row when is not decisive. so i think maybe florida's throwing a lit tantd rum and try to get a little attention ohio w stolen its thunder and -- >> so you're florida the brady of modern-day politics? >> ohio oh what happened in florida is really a crisis of confidence. miami-dade and broward counties which are two str south florida just had virtual chaos. there were stories of in the 27th precinct in for instance, they ran out o ballots at about 11:00 this morning somebody who was working at that poll i

spoke with. and the ballots didn't get there p.m. meaning people just gave up and got out of line. you have lines that were around buildings and just endless, endless wait times. dyed and some people didn't.were still voting in miami-dade and broward up till it was lack oetency by those election officials but it was also because they cut down that early vote period so long that a lot of that vote that would have happened then was crammed into needed all 14 of those days. >> joy-ann, what more have you om your sources? because we had time to speak on monday about this and the problems that happened over the weekend. but the legal situations that are now set up moving forward. >> well what happened essentially in miami-dade is that the supervisor of elections, i think was actually trying to do the right thing, saw that there were so many people who wanted so opened up early absentee balloting meaning you could come and order an absentee ballot on the spot essentialg additional early office is the main office for the supervisor of elections, is in predominantly repub it'se to seven miles away from a lot of strongly cuban-american communities and it's up to 31 m

communities. so now you've got a lot o our voters couldn't get there, this was unfair. so there's the potential legal challenges there. >> all right, joy-ann, thanks so much and stand by for us. obama's re-election tonight may have come down to ing demographics. alex witt is joining us with the latest on that. alex, what are the numbers showing us? >> well, let's take a look just how the president won re-election tonight. some analysts said his challenge would be to avoid a big loss among white maintaining the huge advantage that he had four years ago among es. and it looks like it's exactly what he did, thomas. look right now. in 2008ou t got 43% of the white vote a lott at the time, john mti k here at 2012. and you'll see what happ off from his performance of four years ago with 40% of the white vote. he also matche ago. however, let's look at another graprelative to the gender gap. he benefited from that tonight. that. that was a 12-point edge that he had. 55-43. that more than made up for his seven-point loss among men. also important, thomas was the youth vote for the president. 60% of the young people voting

down a little bit from four years ago but still a solid group for obama. back to you. >> alex thanks so much. we'll talk shortly. robert traynham is also a part of our power panel this evening. let's talk about the numbers alex was jnd dig into the race issuell. get the numbers that he again, it's not the turnout that we saw in '08, the turnout. beinms. for republicans is that president erday, or yesterday evening, and the reason why is because what the democrats have done a very good job of is understanding that quite frankly the 21st century campaign recognizes that america's and failed and what four years ago to run a strictly quote unquote white campaign.6 the mathematicians of the republican party, i'm one of those party, which are the individuals that ki let us be ronald e barry gold watter, deja speak to you our conservative values and the truth will setmaticians are saying wait a minute, the

numbers do not add up. you need to speak to brot only to speak to y. that's the conversation republicans will have starting in about five minutes from minutes from now. the gender gap we saw obviouslyt in earlier polling there was a wider gap. it looked like it got a little tighter as we got closer. inly had a candidate of choice they showed up in droves tonight for president obama. >> women were huge for president obama, thomas. the campaign really put a lot into on many different levels. just to go back to race for a second, race and women. the other thing that happened here is that president obama did have that midwestern rust belt firewall. and the people who really came out for there working-class women. in addition to women of color. he really had an edge with white working-class women. it's because he put together an economic populist message as i think republicans don't entirely understand is that issues like couldn't ra contraception are not just lifestyle issues, they're also economic issues. so the president's message wound up being really consistent and

able to reachf different groups at the same time. >> you know thomas -- >> real fast. >> yeah. i spoke to an official today who didn't want to go on record discussing the racial sort of separation issues here but what they did say off -- not for attribution was look this is the breakdown that any white incumbent president on the democratic side would also face because we do know that the racial polarization in the party goes back tolbj. having said that though it is true that this share of the white vote is lower than any democratic candidate has gotten back in 2000. so the big question for the put forward is do they want to continue to trat and polarize the electorate in a way that in the their benefit or do they want to back off that. and the other number i want to throw out there is on youth. the share of young voters increased in this election to 11% of the electorate. all this talk about enthusiasm young ple voting which is a pretty extraordinary thin that might have helped -- great segue into thisdate. was a huge night for marriage equality. for the first time ever

same-sex marriage measures passed by popular vote. in three states where marriage equality was on the ballot we have maine, maryland, and washington, each ballot measure. in maine for the first in theory oeated the right to have marriage equality in that state. and in maryland it has also passed a referendum upholding marriage equality. the same is true for washington state, where it seemed likely that voters have passed a ballot legislation there. then in minnesota voters are specifically ban same-sex marriage. ino they create a ng marriage between a man and a woman. the effort is very close right arriage equality side just barely losing out on this. but we're keeping a very close eye on what's taking place there. every other time that mirage has been put marriage has been put out to a vote, popular vote, it's been struck down 32 times. we all remember what happened in '08 with proposition 8 in california. currently only other six other states and washington, d.c. have legislated marriage equality.

my pay've all turned.xey're like champing at the bit to get in on this. but we've got to take a break. don't go anywhere. you're watching snnsmsnbc, place for politics. they all have something to say equality. as do i. the break.

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i want to thank my friend and partner of the last four years, america's happy warrior, the best vice president anybody ever hope for, joe biden. >> welcome back everybody. it is 3:32 right now on the east headquarters in new york. 12:32 out west. and it's great to have you with us tonight. as president obama has been re-elected for ace. let's take a look though at the states that brought him over the threshold, the 270 nee as of right obama has a projected 303. this to mitt romney's 206. as we go to the map, states -- look at this. the 25 states in the district of columbia went blue for the pres so far the only swing state that swung for mitt romney was north carolina. and we bring back in our panel ghters that i am so excited to have with me. break we talked about marriage equality and the big things that we have seen

take place this evening. i, i'll start with you because wend what vote in this election. but that had to make a big difference in states like maryland and maine and also in)r washington state where -- and just to be clear about this those were places where people were to vote yes if they were for marriage equality. in minnesota it's a no vote if you are against having the state constitution amended to ban marriage equality. hopefully at 3:30 a.m. i was hopexplaining that correctly to everybody. >> you nailed it. >> okay. thank you, joan. >> this is classic late-night talk. >> yes. the insomniacs out there know what i'm talking it could be down to the youth this is a non-issue. >> it's a non-issue. and we are in an exciting place for those of us who really believe in this progress. we're not just talking abog skirm what we're racial issues and on theses is really a transcendence where young people not only think that these rights

apply to all,ío which i think is a founding creed that this country's battled over for a long time but necessarily get the dispute. sos not about gay marr okay? i never talk about it that way. it's about marriage equality. it's about the fact that you have the right to marry. and the old s, you have the right to serve in the military, you have the right to visit a loved one in the so exciting to think that when we try to tell our chi it was a big deal that barrier because he happened to be african-americanily going to fully get it. cause it's going to be so obvious to them that we don't separate like that. and that iarack obama spoke to tonigh beautifully and in a way at i think was evocative for a lot of people. one more data point, though ton just be in the clouds although i think it but the obama campaign registered over 1 million new voters this cycle. that is more than they registered in 2008. so as for the zombie narrative about a lack of enthiasm, it show up on the ground where as you said thomas youngut and they're changing the way we approach 1346 these issues. >> hogan, robert i need to ask you guys because you're both

connected to rick santorum and, you know he's obviously equali, anti-gay and lesbian rightshogan, let me ask you. as the gop looksthe long game, because they'd like to get back into the white house one day, and this election as they look at these numbers may prove that's a long shot for a long time tonless theyr redefine the target of people they want to attract and invigorate to their base. >> well, first of all, i would reject the notion that rick santorum is against gay(r rights because he doesn't view marriage so different i think -- >> do they have a right to serve in the military under santorum? >> i'm with you. i'm just saying from a marriage standpoint that's his -- >> we've got all night. but let's not -- okay? i made a great pointhe people in this country now, the younger voters don't even seessue just and i think our party has done a bad job in courting all people. we talked about that a little bit before. another great point. the youth vote this time we knew there would be an

undercurrent out there. no one can put a handle on it. what was thes it going to be the push for romney that would win him some of these states? and it wasit was a complete domination with the youth vote. and it was not tapped into. and no one saw it coming because pollsters, as you know when someone says hey, did you vote in the last election and they say no that's the end looking at kids that have shown up outside of the white house tonight. maria teresa i know as you latino vote was but therebe expectationsr years from thise definitive policies on immigration and from his team and certainly from congress. talk about that when we down who has control of the house for the u.s. sedecided. in montana the incumbent t jon tester has a lead. and in nj rick berg are neck and neck. continuing coverage on msnbc when we come back.

i think spanking is pund and whenu get your behind spanked the way we' been spanked tonight you have to pay attenti on to the >> that was mic on our airnight.his evening. next to president obama's re-election win one of the night is who wouldnc

the way in working with oragainst the president. we can now project that democrat maintained control of the senate. and our projections show the ad in the we wnt to go to some of these mocratic senate -- or e me democratic elizabeth warren hasner in the incumbent republican senator though why she feels this win is so elected the first to the state of massachusetts. >> another key senate race happened in missouri. it got a lot of national aton as you'll recall. democratic senator claire mccaskill republican cong akin. here's what she hado te for her. >> i will continue to be a to find the compromises to solve problems for every missouri the families that voted for me. >> democrats retained but they did not keep their seat in the state of nebraska. republican state senator deb fischer beat democratic challenger bob kerrey to succeed nelson. here's fischer talking to her supporters. >> i will wit and integrity.g to build a better

america. >> and to cap off what was truly a big n for forratic congresswoman tammy baldwin defeated former republican governor tommy thompson. in her victory speech baldwin ahead. inúqsconsin's day. but i also believe t we cane forward together. >> and we bring back our entire panel. joining us into this so jimmy, let's observations, the big w from tonight. what strikes you the most? >> first openly gay woman in the united states senate in the history of the united states senate, in the history of the country. big deal. first time a black man was woman was elected to the ty is just as big. and it should be. not because she defeated tommy thompson former governor because she's openly the first black president. the first gay senator. it's big. and it's a great thing becausehey should awisconsin. i think the elizabeth warren seat is a really big deal too, for a couple of reasons.

scott brown was a sitting senator. he'd done pretty much everything like he needed to except made a couple of bad first one on alina kagan. he voted against the pr nominee. he voted against a woman for the supreme court. ig mistak against the bank -- the dodd it morning. and he took more money from wall street than any other sitting ng that people in the commonwealth of massachusetts looked at both in western massachus middle and in the eastern part in boston and said, nah, i don't think that represents our val yoourz values. those were big problems. and he was defeat bid a handy yied by a handy margin. here's the thing. if hillary clinton does stem down as secretary of state, if barack obama nominates john kerrie, the chairman of the foreign relations chit if he is commit by his own chamber, guess who runs for that seat. the guy who just lost to elizabeth warren. so you have huge gains tonight. you've got a couple of outstanding seats as hose play out.

height kam subpoena heitkamp is going to be a recount. tester is close. i think we've got a few others out there. >> we know how the balance of congress is going to be made up and we need to talk about the agenda. mitch mcconnell came out which astatement saying -- i that. if we can put it up gym just read it directly o the setwe don't have the graphic unfortunately. okay. but basically it wasn't the most resounding yes, i'm going to obama. the same who said let's make barack obama a one-term president president. let me ask you, with the fact mitch mcconnell is coming out holding nothing back and the vice president said the fever would break do we still think he has a fever going forward the next four years? >> mitch mcconnell has two issues going on here. first and foremost he's running for re-election in 2014 in kentucky. let's remember that the junior senator from kentucky is rand paul, a tea party favorite. what he doesn't want is a tea party challenge that happened to his friends mike castle arlen specter and so for. number two there could be a challenge from the center caucus

if in fact -- i hate to say this. if mitch mcconnell goes too far to the left with president obama. so what he's doing is making sure his home fires keep burning if you will and thus in the process hopefully does not have a challenger on the far right. it's very very sad because tonight is very very historic for a lot of reasons and one would think that the senate minor leader would go a little bit more to the center just in terms of rhetoric but obviously that's not the case tonight. >> thank you for saying that robert. but with all due respect -- and i do respect you. but this is what's going on here. that mitch mcconnell is worried about -- we have a mandate for the president but mitch mcconnell is worried about people to his right both in his own caucus and in his own state and he's going to come out and disrespect the president like that. >> i just want to read it real quickly because i have it in my hand now what mcconnell had said. he did start by saying he extends his sincere congratulations to the president and the vice president. however, he said, "the american people did two things. they gave president obama a second chance to fix the

problems that even he admits he failed to solve during his first four years in office and they preserved republican control of the house of representatives. the voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president's first term. they have simply given him more time to finish the job. they asked him to do together with the congress the restored balance to washington after two years of one party control." all right. so when we come back we're going to dig deeper into the counties that decided this election. our richard lui is going to be standing by with that. stick around. we're back with much more right here on msnbc. >> whether i earned your vote or not not, i have listened to you. i have learned from you. >> is that you? >> and you've made me a better president. and with your stories and your struggles i return to the white house more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead.

the buckeye state ohio.ve heard about before the election this evening. and it turned out that it did indeed come down to that crucial state. our richard lui is taking a deeper look at that. richard? >> hey, thomas. at 11:30 p.m. last night this was the concern. a high number of uncounted ballots in ohio gave team romney anduxepublican strategists some pause. they were also concerned about an unusually high numberen out when information does not match up or when i.d. is not sufficient. they're counted later if the voter is found to be legitimat end up counted. now, this is the area where most of the provisional and uncounted ballots were and that is in the nort state itself, in cuyahoga county around cn that

section. right around here. when they wereat, that that is what republicans because that's democratic territory. but when you drill down you county itself look back to 2008 and that margin that p won in the last election against john mcskein, a 2-1 margin basically. but let's take you to what we'reqh similar to what was 11:00 p.m. earlier. again a 2-1ath was when they looked at this was that roughly in the strong democratic areas, that's the number ofthere. and then in the areas whererong republican that number was about 140,000. so if you just follow here and get 100% either way but looking at those characteristics if itway, the president would maintain his margin it may have evenesn't matter becaus nevada as well as virginia now going for the president. when you look at ohio it's certainly a state where the president's field offices on the ground were three times the size of romneyave here. >> both sides not taking any ou so much. appreciate it.

joh, as we catime leading up to the last d was through oo ed big ng and doubling dow remarkoing t and then jeep coming fire on this one, is camel's back for people at thought i don't know if i can trust him, he's just not telling the truth? >> yeah.r was getting calls from worried employees. really served to fear in the hearts of people but they were able to confirm they had jobs. and i think to see those auto leaders come out and rebuke him like that really did what all the fact checkerfxs, you knowour campaign is not checkers. butu chrysler and gm coming out and saying you are a liar, sir, i think it really sank in in a way pinocchios won't. >> on top of that they actually gave their employees the d to go vote. i think if anything that was testament of saying we're done. but what's interesting with ohio when you falk about the youth vote proportion of latino youth how they broker obama versus mccain. they broke for close to anok at the latino vhio but then you also start looking at what virginia, even in it was literally alm latino firewall in areas that it really

matters. it was a good point. i worked as a field organizer in ohio -- second. i've got to hit this. mu com th right here on msnbc.!yhv:ç+@yrr2am7v)